“Our focus on growth and investment for the long term will remain central to the group’s plans, but will be underpinned by a more prominent commitment to cost control and cash generation,” said Dunstone, outlining the company’s strategic priorities for the next 15 months.

“We recognise in the current climate there is a balance to be struck.”

The company has launched an “efficiency review” designed to deliver “significant cost savings”.

No job cuts were announced, although they may come later. However, 500 jobs will be created through the opening of five Big Boxes this year.

Carphone surprised the City with a much better than expected performance in its Best Buy retail business, which includes the high-street Carphone Warehouse stores.

Sales rose by 13 per cent to £1billion, against forecasts of 5 per cent. The shares rose 8 1⁄2p to 107 3⁄4p.

Dunstone said the company had benefited by being able to offer customers a huge choice of handsets and mobile phone operators.

He said initial moves to start selling a wider range of laptops had also proved successful, and the group would be rolling out the new store formats this year.

However, sales were also boosted by aggressive pricing and marketing, which meant profit margins were squeezed.

The company is still deciding whether to spin off its TalkTalk telecoms business.

Revenues dipped as more customers left the less-profitable non-broadband business.